Girl Talks
by champagne-and-razor-blades
Summary: Because Kate and Lanie's friendship doesn't get enough time on the show. All the moments that I imagine them having off-screen. Please read & review.
1. Chapter 1

As they lapse into silence, Kate can _feel _the weight of all the questions Lanie is attempting to hold back.

The ME topped up her glass, her eyes drifting sideways as she pressed her lips together.

"You can say it." Kate said after a pregnant pause, barely audible in the hush of Lanie's living room.

"Say what?" she feigned innocence, still not meeting Kate's eyes. Another sip of wine.

"The things you're not saying."

"Honey, there's a lot of things I'm not saying."

"You **know **which ones I'm talking about."

"Do I?"

Kate plucked a chocolate-dipped strawberry from the bowl sitting between them, bit off the tip and sprawled back against the couch.

"_What'sgoingonwithyouandCastle?" _Lanie mumbled, unable to resist, the words spilling from her mouth before she can swallow them back. She's seen the tension, the flirting, but she was absolutely positive that all the _best _moments happen when she's not around.

"So predictable."

"Don't deflect."

"I'm not de-"

"Stop it."

She tucked her knees up below her chin, hugged them, nuzzled her nose against the soft fabric of her leggings.

Lanie waited, toying with the leaves of a strawberry but not actually eating it.

"I don't know?"

The ME waited for the sentence to finish itself off and when it didn't, she raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know? Question mark? Becks, I think you'd know better than anybody what's happenin' with you two."

"I really **don't**. We just- do our thing?"

"Your _thing?_"

"Yeah- wait, no. No. No, no. Not that thing. Other things."

"OTHER THINGS?"

"Lanie. Nothing sexual."

"Apart from the eye sex?"

"_Lanie._ Wait, wait, you notice that?"

"Sweetie, everybody notices. We watch you mentally undressing each other and we smile because it's kinda cute, apart from the whole naked-Castle-in-a-thought-bubble-above-your-head thing."

"You... I... **ugh.**"

A crimson blush had crept its way across Kate's cheeks and she briefly buried her nose in the crook of her elbow.

"Don't worry. I won't bring it up again."

"_Thank_ you."

Kate ate another strawberry, chewing as she closed her eyes.

"__?_"_ Lanie rushed, seemingly unable to stop herself from asking the questions that have probably been lingering in the back of her head for months.

Beckett shot her 'the look', all narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"I don't _count_."

"If you had to hazard a guess?"

"This is ridiculous."

"Say it."

"I'm not telling you."

"Say it."

"I refuse."

"Say it."

"More than twenty."

"Say i- wait. Woah. That many?"

"Shut up."

Lanie bumped her shoulder against her friend's, and Kate shot her a smile, her eyes crinkling around the corners.

"I bet you have the corner of that page folded down so you can flip to it whenever you want."

"No!" Kate protested, swigging another mouthfull of wine and swishing the bubbles around her mouth.

"Mm-hm." Lanie hummed, watching her face become a whole new shade of red.

"...I have a paper clip on it. Doesn't crease the paper."


	2. Chapter 2

Kate has always been good at coping with stress.

Through her life, she had dealt with everything the universe had thrown her way gracefully. Difficult schoolwork, asshole ex-boyfriends, all the studying, her father's alcohol problem. They had been unpleasant things to deal with, yes, but she'd managed.

Then her mother had been murdered, and although it had shattered her for many years, lately she had been dealing with that quite well too.

However, there was only so much dealing one person could do.

She had been shot in the chest, bled out on the grass, had Castle say three words that confused her beyond any imagining, and all of the things she had struggled to deal with in the past had rushed up to mingle with everything she had right now.

It was all too much.

So she'd run away to her father's cabin where she could let the bullet wound heal in private, where she could do anything possible to distract herself from the realization that had she been able to talk through the blood draining into her chest, she might have said those words back.

But now she was back, her first night back in the city after long, long months of not calling Castle.

She still wasn't dealing with anything, not really. She was too tired to deal anymore.

And that was why she was curled up in Lanie's bed, her head on Lanie's shoulder with her friend's arms wrapped tight around her middle.

* * *

><p>Lanie had been looking after people her whole life.<p>

As a kid, she used to play doctor with her pets and siblings, bandage up limbs and slap sticking plasters onto bruised skin. She had been a nurse for a short period of time before she had become the savvy M.E she was today. People had always remarked that she "just knew how to make people feel better."

And she did, mostly because she wanted to. The first time she had met Katherine Beckett, the striking cop with the pixie cut, she had seen the hurting that lay underneath the tough exterior. Over the years, she hadn't completely erased those wounds, but she had certainly helped them heal, bit by bit, one managable piece at a time.

Only now, there was so much pain at once... a bullet wound, that she could understand, but the sniper not being caught, and she was sure - although she hadn't been stupid enough to ask - that there was something about Castle mixed in as well.

(With Kate these days, there was usually something about Castle.)

Lanie had no idea how to patch this up.

As much as it hurt her to admit it, this was a battle her friend would have to fight mostly alone.

But even though Lanie wouldn't battle, she'd be damned if she wasn't going to stand on the sidelines and scream her support until those dragons were well and truly slayed.

And that was why Kate was curled up in her bed, her head on Lanie's shoulder and her cold feet pressed up against the M.E's warm calves.

* * *

><p>Kate knew Lanie was awake; she could feel the <em>awake-ness <em>in the small stretch of air between their heads.

She let the silence string itself out for a few - seconds? minutes? she was too tired to tell - before speaking.

"Lanie," she husked out, clearing her throat briefly.

Lanie twisted around to see her friends face.

"Yeah?" she whispered.

"I don't- I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with this."

"Neither am I," Lanie replied, "But I'm sure you will."

"I know. I have to."

"We all do."

Lanie pressed a kiss to Kate's messy hair, and with that the two of them lapsed back into a comfortable but heavy silence.


End file.
